Trump’s new acting defense secretary installs Tony Tata as top Pentagon policy chief

Former Wake County schools superintendent and North Carolina Department of Transportation chief Tony Tata was named to the Pentagon’s top policy spot Tuesday after a flurry of firings and resignations as President Donald Trump reshapes the Pentagon during his final days in office.

In a memo obtained Tuesday by Defense One, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller — who was put in that job on Monday after Trump fired former Defense Secretary Mark Esper by tweet — announced that Tata would take the policy role.

Tata could not get the Senate to confirm him for the position earlier this summer in part due to a string of false statements he has made in the past, including calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader,” a comment for which he ended up penning a letter of apology to Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla, who was helping oversee his Senate confirmation.

In his new role, Tata won’t have the title “acting” secretary. He will be “performing the duties of,” which means he will not have the full authorities of an acting or Senate-confirmed official.

Tata is replacing Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson who resigned early Tuesday following the firing of Esper.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about Tata’s appointment.

Tata, who was the 82nd Airborne Division’s planning chief for the 1994 invasion of Haiti, retired from the Army as a brigadier general in 2010.

When Tata decided in June 2008 to retire from the Army, Pentagon officials were still asking questions about a mysterious, phony court document he had given investigators in 2007. An Army probe found that Tata had committed adultery with “at least two” women during his career, court and military records show.

Tata resigned as Department of Transportation secretary in July 2015, citing the needs of his family.

The Army’s Office of Inspector General concluded in June 2007 that Tata had extramarital affairs in 1985 and 1992 while he was married to his first wife, Tracy. The News & Observer obtained a copy of the investigators’ report, signed by two senior Pentagon generals. The adultery complaint against Tata involved affairs with three women and a son born out of wedlock.

This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Trump’s new acting defense secretary installs Tony Tata as top Pentagon policy chief."

Tara Copp

McClatchy DC

Tara Copp is the national military and veterans affairs correspondent for McClatchy. She has reported extensively through the Middle East, Asia and Europe to cover defense policy and its impact on the lives of service members. She was previously the Pentagon bureau chief for Military Times and a senior defense analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office. She is the author of the award-winning book “The Warbird: Three Heroes. Two Wars. One Story.”